A study on postsplenectomy changes of serum tuftsin level using a radioimmunoassay protocol

In this article, postsplenectomy changes of serum tuftsin level were studied on both human subjects and rabbits by using a self-established radioimmunoassay protocol. Antituftsin antibodies were raised in rabbits and roosters.¹²⁵I-tuftsin was prepared through an Iodogen method. The characteristics of the RIA were satisfactory with a detecting range of 0.5–100 ug/ml and the lowest detection limit of 400ng/ml. Serum tuftsin levels of splenectomized subjects were measured and compared with control groups. The serum tuftsin level from 30 postsplenectomy human beings was 406±179 ng/ml ( ± s) while that from a control group of 40 healthy blood donors was 557±256 ng/ml; the serum tuftsin level of 10 postsplenectomy rabbits was found to be 206±75 ng/ml while that of a control group of 10 normal rabbits was 318±96 ng/ml. The results showed that serum tuftsin level decreased markedly after splenectomy.